I lean back in my chair as I slide another pile of paperwork into the completed part of my desk. It’s still such a pain having to hold court and do all this paperwork, but at least I was able to transfer most of the daily work to the Council. Now I only have to check up on them to make sure they are doing as they should while giving everyone a chance to get my personal decisions on the one day I do show or leaving a petition with me for the day after. Even then it takes me so long to deal with everything that I’m glad that I have a few that I can rely on to watch my daughters for me.
It wasn’t always a perfect situation as I heard the clattering of hooves headed in my direction followed by the door slamming. Soon after I heard the lighter steps of paws running up but they passed the door to my study towards somewhere else in the manor. I look up to see Sunset Shimmer leaning against the door breathing hard from her little chase. “Dawn and Dusk giving you trouble again, Sunset? If you want I can ask Surprise or Sonata to come over and help you.”
The young alicorn jumps at the sound of my voice before she turns around to glare at me. “Those two are the reason why those two were chasing me in the first place. Right when I was finally getting them to calm down for a nap those two crazy ponies came in and riled them up again before feeding them ice cream. Then they decided that it was a good time to play pounce the princess again. I was tired of that game when they first started it over a year ago.”
I chuckle at how much she sounds like a filly now even though she is around thirty years old mentally. “Well if they are here watching them then I guess you could take a bit of a break. Once I finish these last couple stacks I was planning on a walk around Ponyville so if you want to help sort out the ones that are worth looking at it’ll speed things up a bit.”
Sunset doesn’t say anything but I can tell that she is a bit annoyed as she moves over to the stack I haven’t gotten to yet. I felt a little sorry for most of what she had to go through as her filly form made others treat her like one even though she was much older. As she read through the top sheet I noticed one of her eyes twitch before she threw her legs up with a groan. “This is not what I had in mind when I wanted to be a princess all those years ago. I don’t remember ever seeing mom doing paperwork for hours on end, not to mention having to follow a strict schedule all the time.”
She pulls another petition from the stack and glances at it before holding it up to me. “I mean look at these things. Some of them are just downright crazy that it makes my plan to take over Equestria with a bunch of teenagers seem like a stroke of genius. Listen to this, ‘Petition RLW 822: Request for Freelance Guard License for diamond dog and bunny companion.’ Why would they even ask for something like that let alone expect it to actually happen?”
I levitate that petition over to look it over myself before letting out a smile chuckle. “I might have to look a bit deeper into this one since it sounds interesting. If that bunny is anything like Angel was then I might actually approve this one.” Sunset just looked at me as if I had gone crazy when I say this causing me to just wave a paw at her. “Oh don’t act like Celestia hasn’t done something similar. In fact you wouldn’t believe some of the things she pulls just so she has an excuse to get out of holding court. Why else would she invite ponies like Pinkie Pie to some of the most boring events ever? You can’t hold court if the place is trashed from the night before.”
I watched as Sunset opened her mouth to try and deny these claims but she seemed to be robbed of speech for the moment. Instead of arguing she just sighs. “Unfortunately I can picture her doing just that. In fact didn’t she invite Twilight and her friends to the Grand Galloping Gala just so they could wreck the event?” She sets another petition to the side before looking at me strangely for a moment. “How is it that you aren’t stuck holding court every day anyways? You’ve only ever needed me to watch your daughters for two specific days of the week but none of the others.”
I smile as I think back to when they were trying to get me to hold court and perform other acts on a daily basis until I started phasing that out. “They tried to have me work like that at first but it just isn’t realistic to be holding court constantly. My council handles most of the lesser matters while anything they can’t decide on or involves matters of personal interest come to me. Most of this paperwork is me checking up on the council or issues that aren’t time sensitive. The previous rulers were much the same as almost everything went through the council first, except their council was purely nobles unlike mine which is more based around skillsets that are important.”
Sunset just shakes her head as she goes through the last few pages of the stack before setting them aside as I finish off the last few on my end. I glance up and see her poking at her wings with her nose. “Are you still having trouble with your wings?”
She looks back to me with a bit of a glare before she sighs and fluffs them out. “I still can’t believe that I have them and even after all this time and I still forget about them. It’s only been recently that I’ve been to stop getting tickled by them. I can barely even get off the ground with these things and being up too high still makes me nervous. Add in the fact that I barely have time to spend with mom and I’m starting to wonder why I even wanted to be a princess in the first place.”
I chuckle as I finish up with the last few approvals and send them off to where they need to go. “You’ll get the hang of it eventually. It took Twilight a while and she had one of the best flyers around to help her out. Since you weren’t born with the flying instinct it’ll take a while for you to learn it; hopefully before one of the princesses decide to start tossing you off a cloud until it kicks in.”
She looks horrified at the idea and I continue to get her mind off of the idea. “It’s rather ironic how our situations are though. You always wanted to be a princess with all the power but now that you have it you can barely stand it. While I never wanted the responsibility yet had it forced onto me and I found that it isn’t as bad as I thought. Granted if I had to do things like Celestia I would have ran off long ago and never looked back. Now I think we should take that break that I mentioned before my daughters find you again.”
We managed to escape the manor without either of the two noticing, though Butch and Rose joined us soon after we stepped outside. The timberwolf allowed Sunset to hop up on her back to make things easier on her shorter legs while she looked at the diamond dog curiously. “Hey Flarenza, how come I’ve never seen any of your kingdoms guards? I know you have some from what I heard about the end of the war but I’ve never seen any here or at the castle in the Everfree.”
I look over at Butch who looks back in amusement which causes me to chuckle. “That just means that they are doing their job just like I had planned. It’s not that they aren’t there; you just haven’t been seeing them since they aren’t what you expected.” I smile at the confusion on the young princess’ face before continuing. “Something I’ve noticed from being around the Canterlot castle is that the guards always attract attention while just about everything else gets ignored. In fact almost every kingdom I’ve seen has been like that. So what happens when the guards are something that is constantly ignored by nobles and diplomats alike?”
Sunset still looks a bit confused as she looks between me and Butch before she does a double-take back to him again. “Wait, you mean to tell me that all the servants I see running around your home and castle are actually guards?” She pauses for a moment before her expressions turns thoughtful. “That’s actually an intelligent idea. Servants of any kind are always ignored around Canterlot and nobody would ever expect one to stop them if they caused trouble. At the same time your guards wouldn’t have to worry about protecting the servants since they are the servants.”
I raise an eyebrow at her; impressed that she figured all of that out with only a couple hints. It was no wonder that she was one of Celestia’s students so long ago. “You know you would really give Twilight a run for her bits in the intelligence department. There isn’t much that she can’t do, but she is a tad lacking in the imagination department. But you? You’ve been able to find answers with just the minimum amount of information to come up with an answer to difficult problems.”
Sunset starts blushing at the praise causing the three of us to laugh lightly at her. She is silent for the rest of the walk towards Sweet Apple Acres which gives me time to think about where else to visit. I glance over at Sunset who looked to be recovering from her embarrassment. “So who all have you met around Ponyville in the last couple years? I’d hope that Twilight has introduced you to some of them whenever you stayed with her.”
She is quiet for a while before she finally sighs and replies. “You sound a little like my mom in how she is pushing me to make some friends. It’s hard to do that with this body as I look too young for those I can relate to to want to be around me, but I’m too mature for any that are around my age, not that there are many. Surprise and Sonata are about the only ones that don’t mind being around me. Well, I guess Ms. Beauty from the apple family isn’t too bad either, and those twin musicians are decent to talk to even if they are a bit strange.”
While I’m a bit saddened that she doesn’t get around much I do chuckle at how she describes the last two. “Those two are probably the least strange out of the ones that you named. They did throw me off at first but I eventually figured out the secret behind those two, or rather one that is two.” Sunset leans her head to the side and raises an eyebrow at me. “They have a rare condition where they are so closely linked in mind that they might as well be a single being. While they each might have their own interests and likes they are so close that telling them apart is nearly impossible. They’re actually pretty lucky to have such a loving family as a lesser family could have destroyed them by tearing them apart.”
I pause for a moment to examine one of the apple trees we pass by as we enter the Sweet Apple Acres property. “I’m surprised that you didn’t say anything about Twilight’s student since she is around her all the time now. I also think I know someone else that might be able to relate to you a bit. She doesn’t get around town much either and really could use a few more friends she can trust herself.” I was about to say something else but was interrupted by the sound of galloping and I turned to see B.B. heading towards us.
“Princess Flarenza, I’m so glad to see you. I was about to send one of my workers to request help from you to deal with some timberwolf problems. For some reason a pack of them have been hanging around the property and scaring the cows and the help.” She seems to be really worried as her voice keeps fluctuating between her two accents. I look back towards Rose, who sets Sunset down, and have her run off to find out what is going on with the pack.
“I’m not sure why they’re out here but they shouldn’t be here to harm anything. Many were lost in the war but the ones that survived are completely loyal and have been told not to harm any citizens of Equestria. It’s probably nothing to worry about, but since they were mutated by chaos magic it wouldn’t hurt to make sure.” We make some small-talk while we wait for the alpha timberwolf to return, though I do what I can to keep Sunset drawn into it. We didn’t have to wait long for Rose to return and after being briefed on the situation I started laughing.
“Well that’s something that I was never expecting to happen. It seems that this pack has bonded with the land around this area which is part of why they are involved with the zap apple trees. Since Sionnach is no longer at war with Equestria they have also decided that whoever is in charge of the land is also in charge of them. The Apple family is now the first ponies to ever be in charge of a timberwolf pack.” She looks a bit horrified at the thought while I burst out laughing while Sunset face hoofs at my actions.
B.B. tries to get me to do something more about it but I see some benefits with this arrangement. After a bit of convincing she agrees to at least make a trial of the situation. After checking on a couple other things and getting a couple shipments planned out we bid her farewell and head towards are next destination. As we head out Sunset looks over at me from her perch atop Rose. “So what’s the real reason why you didn’t want to do anything about those timberwolves? I know you haven’t said everything, I’ve been around mom enough to know when something is being hidden.”
I shake my head once again and let out a small laugh. “Well part of it is that they are thinking being and I’d rather not order them to do something against their nature. Besides, the timberwolves have always been important for Sweet Apple Acres and now it’s official. Without them there wouldn’t be any zap apples for the Apple family to take care of. At least now they won’t have to worry about being attacked by them and will even have them come to their defense if something happens. Timberwolves were always meant to be defenders of the kingdom and their allies.”
This earns yet another head shake from the little princess though no further argument. I turn towards the main entrance of the Everfree and start leading her towards the cottage there. “As I was saying earlier though there is someone I wanted you to meet. It’s interesting how she lives where Fluttershy used to and performs the same job as well. She isn’t nearly as shy but she does have some problems being around others and could use some more friends.”
She says nothing but from the position of her ears I can tell she is at least a bit interested. “She has a good number of animals around the place so she isn’t exactly alone, but they aren’t quite the same as someone that can talk back to you. It doesn’t help that she actively avoids being around others but…” I stop when I hear something from ahead of us and look up to see Velour being chased by not only my daughters but Surprise as well.
The problem with this picture though is not that she is being chased by the three, it happened often enough before, but the fact that she doesn’t have her disguise. Sunset is staring in shock at her as Velour’s wings buzz around as she flees from the trio. “Of course there is a more obvious reason why she doesn’t hang around others but she really is a kind soul.”